1Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering, Chosun University, 309, Pilmun-daero, Dong-gu, Gwangju-501–759, Republic of Korea
2Ulster University, Belfast School of Architecture and the Built Environment, Built Environment Research Institute, Jordanstown Campus, Shore Road, Newtownabbey, Co. Antrim, BT37 0QB, UK
*Corresponding author email id: damasen.paul@out.ac.tz, paul.ikwaba2018@gmail.com
Online published on 28 June, 2019.
A hybrid photovoltaic (PV) cell consisting of high and low efficiency cells was designed and its performance compared with Low Efficiency Single Photovoltaic (LESPV) cell. The hybrid PV cell was characterised in terms of incident annual solar energy on each section, annual energy and daily power output. Both PV cells were evaluated within a low-concentrating symmetric Compound Parabolic Concentrator (CPC) suitable for building integration. This CPC was tilted at different incident angles. Simulation results indicated that, for each CPC tilt angle, the distribution of solar energy was higher on the sections with high efficiency cells than those with low efficiency cells. It was further found that, the electrical energy produced by the hybrid PV cell per year at any CPC tilt angle was higher than that of the LESPV cell by 16% for uniform illumination and up to 25% for non-uniform illumination. The overall power output produced by the hybrid PV cell on a clear sunny, partial cloudy and overcast days was higher than that of the LESPV cell by about 11%, 10% and 13%, respectively.
Non-uniform illumination, Hybrid photovoltaic cell, Compound parabolic concentrator, Daily power output, Annual electrical energy
